Who will win? and give reasons for why you think that person will win.
I think Ricky will win as i believe he has mayweathers number in the ring, im saying hatton will win on points

There's only one Ricky Hatton!

Mayweather is without a doubt a superb boxer. But his time has come. Cocky and arrogant he may be, but Ricky has got inside his head. Ricky has outwitted him mentally, and that is a huge step closer to winning the physical battle.

However, I think Ricky may need to knock Mayweather out, as Mayweather is a very clever and tactical boxer who may be able to outbox Ricky over 12 rounds.

My head says Mayweather by my heart says Hatton.
Hatton has phenomenal body shots and I think he could really fuck Mayweather up that said Mayweather is in a technical class of his own.
I'd like to see sambob's prediction because it'll most likely be the opposite of the outcome.
Has anyone else noticed the fucking fieldday the British press is having with this fight? I've not seen anything like it before, what is the U.S coverage like?

I think it will be close. As people have already said Mayweather is a very tactical boxer. I think Hatton will edge it and win. Will we see a knockout?...hard to say

I'll go with hatton...come on ricky!

Did anyone watch the Amir Khan fight?
He absolutely destroyed Graham Earl in 72 seconds, masterclass.

Theres so much more UK coverage than US coverage, that ESPN is often going to reporters from the UK to get the story since they're all in Vegas!

As or the fight itself, honestly I don't see how you could see Ricky Hatton is a favorite in this fight if you know much about the sport. Hatton is not a bad fighter, I'm not going to waste my breath er, fingers, insulting him, especially considering the godlike way he's thought of in the UK. But Floyd should win the fight. He is the much better boxer - his footwork is better, he's a more accurate puncher, has better reflexes, a better jab (though he rarely needs to use it), better upper body movement, better defense (he can catch punches with his gloves like Winky Wright, he can slip punches like James Toney, and has the 'radar' of Roy Jones), etc etc.

In addition to being the better fighter in terms of skills, he has the physical advantage too. He's bigger, faster, stronger, has a much bigger reach (though I don't know Hatton's measurements exactly, this much is obvious just from watching them).

Stylistically the people that say Hatton will win say that he will win because of his style. He is a pressure fighter, he comes on fast, uses his decent footwork to get inside and throw lots of hard body punches. This IS a style that might seem to bother Floyd, but if you look closer at the issue, it really isn't like that. First of all, Ricky has conditioning problems. He will gas out, the first thing that goes is his footwork. He has pretty good footwork but by roun 5 or 6 he will be flatfooted. Mayweather's legs will hold up to rounds 9 or 10.

Also, Hatton has never been in the ring with anyone even CLOSE to Floyd's hand speed. It will take him at least one or two rounds to come on.

Once he does you could assume that he will apply pressure, Floyd will fold, end of story. Well this is only if Floyd isnt fast and skillfull enough to.. hit Hatton while he's coming in. And are you really telling me he isn't? Floyd wins the first two rounds on hand speed and footwork, Hatton comes on strong and edges rounds 3-6 on agression. Floyd settles into the fight and takes the rest of the rounds easily, though Ricky takes round 11 or 12 in a little mini comeback (Because Floyd doesn't want to get his hands dirty).

And hell, Ricky has been down before, the last time he was in with a real welterweight, he was hurt badly several times in the fight. For all we know at this point, Floyd may have enough power to hurt Hatton badly, if this is the case, Hatton will either be knocked out around round 9, or the fight will be stopped due to cuts or possibly bad swelling.

Oh and heres another possible scenario, Hatton has been talking a lot in the past few weeks about how he really can box, and how he will surprise Floyd by how well he can box. Well if he tries to box Floyd, he will sit there on the outside all night, with his punches being slipped and deflected by Floyd's shoulder while Floyd pot shots him on the outside.

Oh and btw Rawk, the only boxing predictions I've made on this forum, have come true, as far as I can remember. So go suck a dick.

For those wanting to see the fight try here.

http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=3131&part=sports

For those wanting to see the fight try here.

http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=3131&part=sports

Nice, there is also www.livefooty.doctor-serv.com I usually use it to watch football games but realised the fight was on it!

LOL

Looks like the english supporters are already there in full force.

Come on Hitman!

I'll be surprised to see him lose this...It'll be a tough fight, but he's capable of winning.

EDIT: Round 10...I'm surprised.

MAYWEATHER WINS!! AMERICAN MUSCLE BABY!!! ENJOY YOUR TRIP BACK HOME, BRITS. AGAIN!

Even though I was backing Hatton all the way, and really wanting him to win, Floyd completely outclassed him. It was a superb display of boxing from Mayweather and he ended it with a splendid knockout, was a great fight to watch, definintely worth staying up for.

Round by round Floyd was picking him apart, cut Hatton in the third, not letting him get much, getting more and more good hits, and ended it with a stunning left which knocked Ricky down, Hatton got up but a couple more awesome blows from Floyd left Hatton too dizzy to stand. Knocked the fuck out.

Well done to Mayweather, showed his sheer class.

MAYWEATHER WINS!! AMERICAN MUSCLE BABY!!! ENJOY YOUR TRIP BACK HOME, BRITS. AGAIN!

And Hatton was so confident he was going to make Mayweather quit, ends up dropping on a knockout. HAHAHA

I'm not even gonna say it...

I'm not even gonna say it...

This guy knows his boxing.

Anyone know where i can see the highlights? Any links around....??!

fair play to mayweather completly outclassed the hitman and made him look like a new boy in the ring

The referee was an absolute joke but credit it where it's due Sambob's prediction was pretty accurate.

money mayweather!

there's onnnnly onnnnnnnnnnnnne floyd MAYWEATHERRRRRRRRRR!

The referee was an absolute joke but credit it where it's due Sambob's prediction was pretty accurate.

Hold on man, I'm not trying to argue just for the sake of arguing, but Joe Cortez has been one of the best rated referees in the business for years. He's been in The Ring Magazine's top 10 ref's list for years as well.

I know the argument, he broke up the fight too much. But can you blame him?? Throughout the build up to the fight, it was constantly said that Hatton was basically going to try to do what he did to Kostya Tzyu, to Floyd Mayweather. Well, what he ref decides is just how the fight goes, so Kosty Tzyu lost to Ricky Hatton. However, with 9 out of 10 referees in the ring with Tzyu, he would have won that fight. Cortez has a dilemma, do I stop the action a lot (which is fair, not not that exciting), or let Hatton/Floyd hold excessively and possibly change the outcome of the fight and also be unfair.

The only thing you could really complain about legitimately is Cortez docking Hatton a point for a rabbit punch. I think if Hatton had pushed Floyd throug the ropes then punched him, or if Floyd had fallen it would have been valid, however Floyd often ducks down low to give himself room to slip out off the ropes when he's forced to them, this is what happened. He was ducking down and turned a bit, which made it seem like Hatton caused the incident. Interestingly enough, if it was another ref I would have let this one slide, but Cortez really knows fighters, and I know he knows that Floyd does that.

Floyd has a tedency to turn his back mid-superhuman athletic feat that gets him in trouble. Just like his fast reflexes make putting an elbow up in defense look more like throwing an elbow.

You can't say Cortez is biased for Floyd though, he has ref'd many of Floyd's previous fights and has shown repeatedly that he doesn't show any bias towards him. In fact, he ref'd Floyd's closest fight to date (his first with Jose Luis Castillo), and he docked both Floyd AND Jose in that fight, as well as constantly warning Floyd for pushing off with his elbows. The Hatton camp knew this, that is probably why if anyone they wanted Cortez to ref. If it was Floyd's choice he would probably have gone with someone like Kenny Bayless or Jay Nady.

Thats the problem, Joe Cortez is a very experienced referee, so that makes his refereeing of the fight even more controversial. The rabbit punch was a joke and Mayweather deserved to have points taken for the obscene amount of elbows he threw, some of them may have been defensive instincts but a few of them were clearly deliberate.
He knew Hatton was an inside fighter and it seemed everytime Hatton got on the inside Cortez would pull them apart, what was Hatton supposed to do? I'm not saying Mayweather isn't a better fighter but for me Cortez ruined the fight.

Fighting on the inside and holding is different. Notice in the later rounds when Hatton was on the inside, but there was no holding going on, Cortez didn't break them.

But ELBOWS? Are you serious? I dont' recall a single elbow thrown in the fight. Actually throwing an elbow is a very easy thing to see, and if it happened I'm sure Cortez would have caught it. Mayweather uses his arms and especially his shoulder for defense. Hatton rushes in with no regard to this if he runs into an elbow and gets hit that his own problem.

What did these obscene amount of elbows do? I hope you aren't going to say the cut was from an elbow!

The knockout was brutal. (I only watched 8 rounds to the end). It was literally like he banged his head 3 times. One in the jaw, and bumped on the post and back of his head when he fell, ouch.

I knew Mayweather is going to win anyway....Hatton seem like he couldn't keep him up with his footwork.

Looking back on this, Mayweather completely outclassed Hatton from the start.

Looking back on this, Mayweather completely outclassed Hatton from the start.

Yup! Hatton won rounds 2 and 5, that is all.

Just bumping this for posterity since Rawk is now claiming I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Sambob, was just wondering what do think of the Calzaghe/Hopkins, fight what ya think will go in that fight?

Sambob, was just wondering what do think of the Calzaghe/Hopkins, fight what ya think will go in that fight?

In theory, Calzaghe should win.

Hopkins still box? Damn.

yea hopkins still fighting even though i think all this fight is about is black v white, seen as all the press im seeing has hopkins saying he will never lose to white man, even though calzaghe has the best chance to beat him aslong as his hand injury doesnt reoccur but he did beat someone with an injured hand (cant remember who thought sambob might know)

he really said that?

Racist much?

fucking nig nog haha, but still a good boxer when he was younger

Sambob, was just wondering what do think of the Calzaghe/Hopkins, fight what ya think will go in that fight?

Well its a pretty tough fight to call for a number of reasons. Hopkins hasn't been in with a young (or prime) strong fighter since he fought Jermain Taylor, and he definitely lost the second fight with Taylor, though of course, when fighting someone smaller than himself, such as Trinidad, De La Hoya, etc etc, only months or a couple of years earlier.... he blew them out of the water.

Calzaghe on the other hand, has fought only one prime legitimate talent in his ENTIRE CAREER. That would be Mikkel Kessler, but thats only speculation, as we haven't even seen that much from Kessler... though its obvious he's very talented.

Basically what I'm getting at is theres no benchmark to compare them.

Throw in the fact that despite the fact Hopkins stays in AMAZING shape and takes perfect care of his body, he is getting older every day. Some would say "Look at his last fight", he looked decent against Winky Wright. Well sorry, but Winky Wright is getting old himself. In many ways, Wrights BODY is older than Hopkins, his legs are completely gone. You think he fights right up close to his opponents because he wants to? Yeah right. He's been doing it more and more as the years go on. Too many Krispy Kreme foughnuts for Winky I think. But anyway, though Hopkins handled him in his usual manner, he appeared a bit sluggish.

Calzaghe has never been hurt, never faced serious competition, and his still in great shape.

Stylistically theres not much you can do about Hopkins, he is designed to be versatile, to handle any situation (which he has done). Calzaghe is very talented, but he makes a lot of mistakes. If comes in sticking his head out, without any defense.. He throws wide looping punches often, he showboats, and often he throws flurries of SLAPS instead of real punches which could get him in trouble.

Stylistically, if Hopkins 'still has it', he should actually beat Calzaghe handily I think. Both he and Calzahe could take some early rounds, but Hopkins will be strng mid-late fight. Calzaghe loves to find and if he feels like he's losing the fight he will start to slug and try to make something happen. That being said, Hopkins has a fantastic chin, which doesn't matter of course because he tucks it so well its impossible to hit. So its possible that Calzaghe could be caught by Hopkins late in the fight while fighting recklessly, but I doubt it as Calzaghe has a good chin too. Hopkins straight right and will cause problems for Calzaghe. Hopkins comes from a VERY long line of OLD SCHOOL trainers. Watch how he throws a straight right, or how Floyd Mayweather does it. Even without hand speed it will land because its disguised by lead shoulder movement, and actually hidden behind the lead shoulder until its too late.

However it is also possible that Hopkins legs are too far gone to keep up with Calzaghe. IF this is the case, Calzaghe should win a clear cut but not very exciting decision, after all its hard to win rounds against Bernard and make anything exciting happen, you sure as hell won't hurt him.

Well when Calzaghe fought Byron Mitchell he broke his hand (left I assume) pretty badly, but still managed to take him out, though thats not much of an achievement.

thanks for the thoughts, hopefully we should have a good fight on